A Moment in Time
by Therabidsquirrel
Summary: Little party at the Pond for Wildwing and a bit of reminicing.


A Moment in Time

*** 

Hey everyone! Glad to see me? Hee!:)

Anywho, this was a brain fart, as most stories are. It took forever for this to get the way I wanted it, and now you have the completed masterpiece. I'm working on several more stories at once now, but that's okay. If I get stuck on one I can always move to another. :)

Kaeera, good job on your latest story! I'm loving it! I hope you can finish it soon!! It's great! And PapillionStar, I am tempted to really get the angry mob going on your Orphan. It's just way too good to not finish! Anyhow, hope you enjoy folks!

*** 

Mighty Duck's belong to Disney. And I belong to the Mad Scientists Convention, but don't tell them that because I ran away…

*** 

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!" 

Wildwing snickered as Chameleon leapt up and down in excitement, cheering. Nosedive was laughing at the small saurian as Phil put a cake down on the table, candles lit and flickering.

"Make a wish and blow out your candles." The large human grinned. Canard smirked.

"At my house it was 'Say a prayer that you didn't get anymore underwear from Aunt Ruth.'" The rest of the team snickered at him as Wildwing made a face, staring intently at his candles.

"Whatever you do, don't tell anyone your wish. It might not come true." Phil stated quickly. Wildwing looked at him, nodded, then blew out his candles. There was cheering all around and Kazar sat up a little.

"Can we eat now?" he asked. Chameleon cheered, causing Mallory to look at him. He was still bouncing as he stood near Nosedive, Duke holding a string just above the child's head as if playing with a cat. Chameleon was enjoying himself as he tried to snatch it away from the older mallard. Every time he grabbed hold of the string, he cheered then let go and began trying to get it again. Duke was grinning madly and Nosedive was laughing softly, enjoying the moment. Wildwing snickered at them as Phil began cutting up the cake and putting it on plates, which Tanya passed around. Wildwing, as was the custom, got the first and biggest piece.

"Having fun guys?" he asked them. Duke looked up and nodded vigorously, then looked back down and grinned at Chameleon, whose knees were bent as he stared up at the string… ready to pounce again.

"You gonna get it this time kid?" he asked. Chameleon let out a determined cry and leapt up, snatching the string. The ducks cheered at him and he leapt up and cheered as well, turning to run circles around Nosedive who laughed at him.

"Victory lap!" the teen exclaimed. "Come on Chameleon! Victory lap!" with that he and Chameleon ran around the eating area of the kitchen, arms in the air as they cheered at the 'victory'. Wildwing and Duke laughed at them as Grin snickered. Mallory and Tanya grinned and Canard shook his head.

"Victory lap?" he asked, an eyebrow raised.

"Yeah!" exclaimed Chameleon after they'd been around the room once. He lifted his arms up and Nosedive picked him up, placing him on his shoulders. "Like in that game you play! You guys do a victory lap after practice sometimes. Remember?" he asked. "I wanna do it too, but not on the ice. Ice hurts. I don't like it. It makes me sleepy." Now he was pouting. He and Kazar had an agreement on ice. It was cold and a serious shock to the system. Therefore, a lot of their time was spent below the pond in the generator room, which Kazar had gotten to a very comfortable temperature for them both.

"We'll take you out to play street hockey one day Chameleon." Wildwing promised as he took his fork and played with his cake. "It's the same, only without ice." He explained. 

"Oh. YEA!" Chameleon cheered again, then 'oohed' as Tanya handed him a little plate with a little piece of cake.

"Eat all of it and I'll give you some more." She told him when he looked down at the piece she was giving Nosedive, which was larger.

"Okay!" Chameleon grinned toothily at her, then quieted as he began picking at the cake with his fingers, covering them with icing.

"What ever you do, don't get that stuff in my hair." Nosedive warned as he started on his own piece. 

"I won't." Chameleon promised as Mallory turned to look at the teen and grinning devilishly. She raised icing covered fingers and he nodded at the ice cream. She frowned and turned around again causing him to grin happily.

"So. You feeling any different today?" Duke asked as he took a seat at the table. Now Nosedive and Wildwing were the only ones standing as the others took a seat. Wildwing shook his head, fork in his mouth. He pulled it out and swallowed.

"No. Did you put something in my food last night?" he asked.

"No. Just your normal narcotics." Nosedive grinned. Wildwing snickered as Chameleon looked up in confusion.

"What's a nar-cot-tick?" he asked, sounding out the word. Nosedive cringed.

"It's nothing. Kinda' like ice." Duke said quickly.

"Eeeeeeww!!" Chameleon exclaimed, his face scrunching up. "I don't' like ice!" he immediately perked up. "I like ice cream!" then he frowned again. "I no like ice." He told them. Then he got back to his cake, Kazar licking his claws has he tried to get off the icing from the piece Tanya had given him to try. He enjoyed the icing the most and knew he was going to have to go out later to get rid of all the energy it was going to give him.

"I think Duke was talking about the DuCaine powers." Canard said, staring down at his plate, which was sitting on the table. He still had his cast and it had scribbling all over it from where the rest of the team had signed it, and a few young fans to boot. Wildwing shrugged.

"I feel about the same as I did yesterday." He stated casually. He made a face. "But I did make the lamp explode this morning because I thought it was the alarm clock." He told them sheepishly. Nosedive snickered.

"Ooh. I pity your clock. Did it suffer the same fate?" he asked.

"Nah. The crash of the lamp woke me up and I just threw the clock across the room."

"You didn't hit the collage did you?" Wildwing shook his head at that, finally taking a seat.

"Nah. I stopped it before it hit anything." He gave a weak smile. "My daily ritual of practice." He stated softly, nodding slowly. Nosedive grinned at him, snickering.

"You need a new lamp now." Stated Mallory, sending a wink at Tanya. Fortunately all the guys missed it. Tanya merely smiled and shrugged, popping another piece of her cake into her mouth.

"When does he open presents?" Chameleon suddenly asked. "I wanna see what he got!" he exclaimed happily.

"In a little while." Nosedive said with a grin. "We usually talk for a little first in order to make him suffer."

"Oh." Chameleon made a face. "I don't like that. I wanna see what he got. Sufferings no fun!" Duck chuckled at the child as Wildwing laughed.

"Alright then!" he exclaimed. He grinned at Nosedive. "Geez, he's been spending way too much time with you." He stated as Phil got up to collect the gifts and bring them to Wildwing. Nosedive grinned evilly.

"And I got it from where?" he asked, lifting his fork and spinning it in a circle in sarcastic curiosity.

"Grandpa Larken." Wildwing stated casually, leaning back in his seat. Canard snorted and gave his plate his full attention. He then covered his beak with his hand.

"Bull!" he coughed, then looked away innocently. Wildwing shook his head grinning.

"No, it's true." He stated. "Half of the stuff he pulls he gets from Gramps!" he exclaimed.

"And the other half I got from you." Nosedive grinned cheekily.

"Is your grandfather where Nosedive gets his prankish side from?" Mallory asked as Phil came back, placing a small bundle in front of Wildwing. The white duck took it and looked at it, to find a name. It was from Grin. He thanked the larger duck and began opening it. 

"No. Gramps was our adopted great-grandfather on our adopted father's side. Ray McDrake. Gramps was the one that took us in after Ray and his wife were killed in an accident about two years before Dragaunus attacked." He explained to them.

"Yeah. He fought with the orphanage for a week before they stopped trying to take us away." Nosedive cocked his head to one side. "Still, I never saw him that angry again for a long time." He smirked. Wildwing snickered.

"Yeah. It was funny when he got mad too. There was a vein on the right side of his head that always popped out…" he and Nosedive snickered.

"He was the one that Nosedive learned most of his pranks from." Canard told them. "Sometimes they'd try them out on me." he frowned as Wildwing and Nosedive laughed at him.

"Just keeping you on your toes." Wildwing grinned as he looked at the gift Grin had given him. It was a crystalline ball that had multi colors shining in it. When the light hit it, a prism of colors was cast over the room. "Cool! Thanks Grin!" he exclaimed. "But ah… I'm not big on meditation crystals." He said. Grin shrugged.

"I've moved on from that myself. They don't really help as much as they did a few years ago. I collect them now. Besides, it's really just glass." He admitted. Nosedive grinned.

"Bernie the Bear brought him down to earth." He muttered. He and Chameleon snickered as Grin made a face at them. The next gift handed to him was from Duke.

"Wildwing, you used to prank?" Mallory asked, getting back to the earlier subject. Wildwing grinned.

"Oh yeah. Dyed Linda McDrake's hair purple once." He rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment. "Course, I got grounded for that too." He said sheepishly as Canard and Nosedive laughed at the memory.

"Don't forget that you dyed Gramps orange." Nosedive added.

"What?" Duke asked. "How'd you do that?" he asked. Wildwing snickered.

"Puckworld's clay has many uses." He grinned. "They make bowls, porcelain if you heat it right and long enough, they make great forts in the summer… and if you cook it just right with someone's favorite bar of soap, it solidifies and becomes a feather dye." He told them, grinning mischievously.

"His grandfather was orange for two weeks." Canard snickered. "I made the mistake of asking him what happened the day after it happened and he kinda' shrugged and was like, 'this is what happens when you stay out in the sun too long.' And then he shook his head and grinned at me and told me that he ate too many carrots." He chuckled. "My father saw him and thought he was a nutcase."

"Of course, after Gramps lost the wonderful orange coloring, Wildwing received a blue coloring to his feathers." Nosedive grinned. "Gramps got him back."

"Yeah, and he was stuck like that for two weeks and Linda wouldn't let him stay home, so he had to go to school like that." Canard laughed.

"He put blue dye in your soap?" Tanya asked. Wildwing shook his head as he held up a picture frame, looking at it carefully. It was picture of the team after winning the Stanley Cup for the first time with Canard on the team. He grinned at Duke.

"Thanks." He said quietly. The elder mallard nodded and Wildwing looked at Tanya. "There are some places on Puckworld where the ice never melts, and it freezes the ground too. In some areas the dirt turns blue. It's rare and pretty abnormal, but Gramps had a house out in one of those areas and manage to find some blue clay out of the area and pulled the same trick on me."

"Waste." Mallory snorted. "He could have made a lot of money off of it." Nosedive and Wildwing snorted back.

"Yeah right. Like he needed it." Nosedive stated as Wildwing opened a gift from Canard. A jersey from Puckworld. Where he'd gotten it and hidden it, none of them would ever know. Wildwing thanked him. "Gramps was loaded beyond belief." Nosedive told Mallory. "He had enough money to have five retirements." The group looked surprised.

"What kind of work did he do?" Phil asked. Nosedive shrugged. 

"I dunno." He stated. "I never asked. Wasn't a big thing for me."

"He had stocks, owned multiple businesses… stuff like that." Wildwing told them as he picked up another gift. This one was from Tanya. It was a lamp with black dragons on it and a red background. He snickered and thanked her as well. "He also sold some of that blue clay every now and then." Phil handed him a gift from Mallory, which turned out to be a gold collector's knife. On it was Gandalf from the book series 'Lord of the Rings'.

"Ooh!" Duke exclaimed as Wildwing looked it over, grinning widely. "Where'd you get that Mal-Mal?" he asked.

"I ordered it." She told him with a smile. "Tanya told me you liked the books so I figured you might like that." She told Wildwing. Wildwing just nodded.

"Thanks Mallory." He told her happily. Duke looked at her.

"Can I get one of those on my birthday?" he asked hopefully. She just laughed at him.

"I'll think about it." She grinned evilly.

"I like the glass ball." Chameleon said, to which Grin smiled at him.

"I like the lamp." Kazar grinned. Nosedive snickered at him as Tanya nodded, smiling.

"I knew you would." She stated. Wildwing grinned.

"It's mine though. I saw it two weeks ago." He stated.

"Yeah. That's why Tauny got it." Nosedive grinned as Phil handed Wildwing the last gift.

"That's from me and Kazar!" Chameleon exclaimed happily. "Nosedive helped us go get it!" he cheered, bouncing a little on the teens shoulders. The others snickered at the child's excitement, and quieted as Wildwing unwrapped the gift. It was a brown hardback spiral notebook with empty pages in it.

"It's a journal." Kazar stated as Wildwing picked up a set of pens that came with it. "We thought you might like it. It's no glass prism ball or anything…" he trailed off and Wildwing smiled at him.

"No. It's great. Thanks Kazar." He smiled at the child on Nosedive's shoulders. "Thanks Chameleon." Chameleon grinned cheekily at him, then poked the top of Nosedive's head with a clean finger.

"Where's your gift to Wing?" he asked curiously. Nosedive shrugged causing the child to giggle.

"Already gave it to him." He stated casually.

"When?" Mallory asked. "What was it?" Wildwing shook his head.

"He gave it to me last night, at one in the morning." He told them. Nosedive grinned sheepishly at the looks everyone gave him.

"I've always done that." He explained. "Wildwing always told me that he was born at one o'clock in the morning. And when I was little, I always wanted to make sure he got his gift from me, so I'd sneak into his room at one in the morning and give it to him. I always have." He shrugged. Wildwing smiled and nodded.

"I've never minded." He admitted. "Actually I kind of appreciate it. It's a Nosedive thing." He shrugged.

"What was it?" Chameleon asked curiously. Nosedive shrugged, again causing the child to giggle.

"Oh the usual. An assortment of candy… some odd ball trinket…" he shrugged again, this time Chameleon laughing. "Nothing big." He admitted.

"He gives you trinkets?" Canard asked.

"Yeah. I used to keep them on the wall back home. Remember? Linda had a thing about bare walls." He gave a joking glare at his brother. "And so does Nosedive… but anyway, she'd started a collage on our bedroom walls before she died, and every time we won something, or had pictures made, or got a trinket or something, we would put it up on the wall. So we'd remember." He explained. Nosedive nodded.

"I used to give Wing trinkets all the time to go on the wall back home. So, since we're starting a collage in his room here, I figured it deserved a sacred trinket." He grinned as he nodded. Duke grinned as well.

"That's cool. I like that idea." He told them. Nosedive nodded.

"Bare walls show lack of creativity." He said solemnly. 

"And that's why you've hung comic books and movie posters on your walls." Mallory said dryly. Nosedive nodded.

"Yep. It's my very own collage. Sides, the comics gotta go somewhere." He stated, shrugging once more and getting a 'whee!' out of Chameleon. Phil snickered.

"I like the idea too." He told them as he stood. "Well, I gotta go guys." He patted Wildwing's shoulder as he passed him by. "Happy Birthday. I wasn't able to find anything I didn't think you'd throw away, so my gift to you is one week of no photo shoots." He grinned. At this the entire group cheered and he laughed, waving as he left. "See you birds later!" he called over his shoulder, walking out of sight.

"Yes! Great party Wing!" Nosedive exclaimed. "Thanks to you, we have freedom!" with this he spread his arms and looked up with his eyes closed, Chameleon giggling at him. Tanya laughed at him, then looked at the others.

"So who wants ice cream?" she asked. Hands shot up and several me's were shouted. She stood laughing and headed to get some bowls as Nosedive finally sat down across from his brother and next to Mallory. Chameleon immediately went to her excitedly.

"So what are you going to do now that you're getting old?" Nosedive grinned at his brother. Wildwing snickered.

"I am not getting old." He stated. "Old is when you're like Gramps and you're almost a hundred and ten." Nosedive shrugged.

"Mom's grandmother lived to be one twenty three." He said casually. Duke looked at them.

"You know, I've noticed that humans age quicker than we do. If we said we knew someone who lived to be that old, they'd freak." He exclaimed. Nosedive nodded vigorously, grinning.

"Yeah. Thrash and Mookie still don't believe me." he told them. Mallory snickered at him, then told Chameleon to stop when he started reaching up and playing with her bangs. It was then that Tanya returned with the ice cream.

"Humans are just a little weird if you ask me." she said. Agreements came from all around, followed by cheering from Chameleon as the ice cream was finally passed out. Birthday Parties were fun.

End :)


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